He took piano lessons from an American music student and her Old English sheepdog for 50p a time. After 8 years of Rudolf Steiner in Bristol he studied Drama at Manchester University, sang and played for many years in an award-winning American swing & rockabilly band, The Railtown Bottlers, and took an MA in Music Design for Film & TV.

Olly has performed and taught in far-flung places such as post-war Asmara, Eritrea, with ex-fighters and students; with an itinerant East-European folk band, to packed houses, in a barely independent Ukraine; music festivals in Seattle; busked all over the place – Venice Beach, Barcelona (the Olimpiada Cultural), Covent Garden; played (with The Railtown Bottlers) on a Saturday Night chat-show with Suggs, Amy Mann, Squeeze, Lloyd Cole, Alison Moyet and Nanci Griffith.

Olly has composed for around fifteen productions at Shakespeare’s Globe in the last 8 years, collaborating with some of the best multi-instrumentalists in London. A few of his other credits include: Richard Bean’s The Nap (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); No Ball Games (Irresistible Films); Shakespeare In Silent Cinema (BFI/Globe); Wendy & Peter Pan (RSC); Frayed (Irresistible Films); Pillars Of The Community and Thérèse Raquin (National Theatre); Novecento(Donmar Warehouse); Pinnochio, The Midnight Cry Of The Deathbird: Nosferatu and Caligari (BBC Radio 3, featuring a contemporary Song Cycle composed for internationally-acclaimed Countertenor, Robin Blaze); Mr Kolpert (Royal Court); Macbeth and The Frontline (Shakespeare’s Globe); The Life And Times Of Vivienne Vyle (BBC/Saunders And French); Much Ado About Nothing (RSC/West End).

As a composer/animateur/teacher for Glyndebourne, English National Opera, Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera, National Theatre, National Youth Music Theatre, Royal Festival Hall, Central School Of Speech & Drama, National Association of Youth Theatres and Royal College of Music. I was a founder-practitioner on the Eritrea Community Theatre Project, Asmara, in 1995. I live in Northwest London with my family and have a studio in nearby Harlesden.